Art forgery

Under an art Counterfeiting refers to the imitation or copy of works by other artists fraudulently.

Basics

An art forgery created by the reproduction or modification of a work of art when it is done with the fraudulent intention to give the impression that it is a work of a particular artist, from which it does not come in truth. It can be either a copy of an existing plant or an imitation or re-creation in the type and technique of the artist concerned.

As long as it was regarded as the goal of restoration, restore a work of art apparently in his first original condition, the activity of the restorer has always been located in the vicinity of art forgery. This close, she was only saved when the principle of neutral retouching ( tratteggio ), developed in Rome by the Istituto Superiore per la conservazione ed il restauro below its long- standing director Cesare Brandi, nearly ubiquitous. Today it belongs to the professional ethics of the restorer, just do not want to pretend original authenticity.

In German law, the art of forgery is not explicitly mentioned. For a persecution are relevant § 107 of the Copyright Act ( Invalid attach the author's designation ) and § 263 (fraud ) and § 267 of the Penal Code ( forgery ). Copying or mimicking itself is legally permissible, is inadmissible only the fraudulent intent, which is expressed with the intention of making a profit. The fraudulent intent distinguishes the falsification of all other forms of copying or imitation. A unwissentliches copying is not judged by copyright as a forgery, but rather the insistence, when a work has been recognized as an imitation of intellectual property, as copyright infringement. Even copying a replica instead of the originals will be legally assessed under circumstances as inadmissible.

In addition to the copy of works to be covered by the concept of forgery and the copy of the signature of an artist by strange hand, regardless of whether it is mounted on a fact derived from the artist in question work on a copy, an imitation, or the like. This type of fraud is particularly common, since it is connected with little effort, requires no artistic ability and a large target group appeals, namely all those who know the prices paid for the artist in question. This group is considerably larger than the group of people who can judge the works of that artist artistic.

Little effort is also preparing to copy printmaking, if the forger is owned by the original plates. The forgery consists here in the post-processing of the plates and attachment of handwritten names. Copying with the help of photocopiers is even easier, but also easy to recognize.

Far more difficult is the complete re-creation of a copy or imitation. It requires skill and art, the use of techniques and materials of the respective time. Here there are large differences in the quality of the forgery.

Known counterfeiters

Known Counterfeiters recent history are

• The Dutchman Han van Meegeren, who attracted attention in 1945 with the painter Jan Vermeer forgeries,
• The Hungarian Elmyr de Hory, the end of the 1960s, so boasted after the announcement of his career forger to have created hundreds of works in the style of Derain, van Dongen, Matisse, Modigliani and Picasso in particular and circulated,
• The German Lothar Malskat, in the Schleswig Cathedral and at St. Mary 's Church in Lübeck anbrachte as a restorer false Gothic wall paintings,
• Aachen goldsmith Reinhold Vasters, which is 1979 to look through the discovery of 1047 original drawings in the Victoria & Albert Museum as a master forger of Renaissance art,
• Wolfgang Laemmle and Edgar Mrugalla, both in 1988 with extensive omnibus volumes of graphics and paintings known forgeries and later sentenced to probation.
• Konrad Kujau forged Hitler diaries and sold it for 9.3 million DM to the journal star, which they published in April 1983. Kujau was after flying up the fake ( and the film adaptation of the substance in the film Schtonk! ) Famous.
• Great sensation was caused in 2011 a trial of art forger who sold fake masterpieces for about 16 million euros. Wolfgang Beltracchi, his wife and two other people were sentenced to prison terms of varying amounts; Beltracchi received a six year sentence. See collection Werner hunter.
• 2005 appeared an edition of Sidereus Nuncius Galileo, were included in the previously unknown ink drawings. These international experts befundene as genuine sensational discovery proved 2012 as a forgery, which had been brought by alleged the Italian antiquarian Marino Massimo De Caro in the antiques trade.

In the UK, the cases of the forger Tom Keating, John Myatt and Eric Hebborn created a great stir in the U.S. ( a preferred market of many counterfeiters ), for example, David Stein (aka Henri Haddad ). Large gained popularity also the forger Elmyr de Hory, shot the film F for Fake about the Orson Welles.

Fakes

Forged is almost everything on the market achieved high prices, old masters as well as modern classics. Under police investigators around 60 percent of circulating in the market of art are attributed as forged or false.

Leader in counterfeiting ranking is Salvador Dalí. Robert Descharnes, the last Dali's secretary, said that about 90 percent of all offered Dalí graphics do not come from the master himself. Made easy it has the potential counterfeiters artists by putting in later years his signature generously under blank sheets. Wife Gala and the private secretary Peter Moore increased the number of questionable Dalí works by dubious authorizations. For the time being the last act in terms of Dalí fakes: After the art historian Lutz Löpsinger in collaboration with the gallery Ralf Michler 1984, a critical catalog raisonné of the graphic work created and so tried to stem the tide of counterfeits, Michler in 2006 was sentenced because he Dalí works had been commissioned and signed.

A contrary case, the Figures by Bohumil Samuel Kecir represents: the paintings as such are not forgeries, but most likely it never was the painter as a person. A similar case already happened in the 1960s, when it became known that the author and publicist Max Aub had invented the existence of the painter Jusep Torres Campalans. Aub had this form of thought not only for his novel; He also painted many pictures which then works as Campalans received attention.

The Berlin Rathgen Research Laboratory was involved in 2011 by its archaeometric investigations instrumental in the discovery of the so-called collection hunter and was able to identify the images presented to them by the police as fakes. Even with less elaborate methods can identify counterfeit drugs: In England three welfare recipients have forged missed sculptures on a grand scale. The fraud was only discovered when they tried, the British Museum in London, an Assyrian stone frieze for sale. The frieze inscription contained spelling errors. Then also examined the Art Institute of Chicago a supposed Gauguin - also a fake from the English garage workshop.

The Prix Annette Giacometti pour le droit et des artistes of the oeuvres is an endowment founded by the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, in 2011 the price of 10,000 euros. It is awarded annually to exhibitions and publications from around the world who are committed to respecting copyright for works of art and artists, and are directed against art forgery.

Abundant supply of counterfeits come from Russia since the 1990s. In June 2013 the BKA scored a blow against an international art forgery ring. There were intercepted at the 1000 paintings of Russian avant-garde artists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Jawlensky and others. The main perpetrators were Russians, Israelis and German - Tunisian.